RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Ray County >> Saint Cloud >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Saint Cloud, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Saint Cloud and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Saint Cloud:
    • 39.292788, -94.018277
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Saint Cloud
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Ray County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Ray County
    • Since Saint Cloud is near Lafayette County and also Clay County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lafayette County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Clay County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Saint Cloud

Communities Also Named Saint Cloud ...

We found eleven communities that are also named Saint Cloud.

There is one other community in Missouri that is also named Saint Cloud.

Beyond Missouri, we know of ten communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these ten communities, ten are located in the United States and one is in Canada.

  • Communities Located In Missouri ...
    • Crawford County
      • This Saint Cloud is located in Crawford County and lies 169 miles [272 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Saint Cloud that is located in Ray County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Crawford County community of Saint Cloud.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Colorado
      • Larimer County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Colorado community of Saint Cloud [Larimer County].
    • Florida
      • Osceola County
      • This Saint Cloud is located in Osceola County and lies 1,054 miles [1,696.2 km]<1> to the southeast of the Saint Cloud that is located in Ray County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Osceola County community of Saint Cloud.
    • Kansas
      • Dickinson County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Saint Cloud [Dickinson County].
    • Minnesota
      • Stearns County
      • This Saint Cloud is located in Stearns County and lies 432 miles [695.2 km]<1> to the north of the Saint Cloud that is located in Ray County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Stearns County community of Saint Cloud.
    • New Jersey
      • Essex County
      • This Saint Cloud is located in Essex County and lies 1,046 miles [1,683.4 km]<1> to the east of the Saint Cloud that is located in Ray County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Essex County community of Saint Cloud.
    • Ontario
      • This Saint Cloud lies 827 miles [1,330.9 km]<1> to the northeast of the Saint Cloud that is located in Ray County.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Washington County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Pennsylvania community of Saint Cloud [Washington County].
    • Washington
      • Skamania County
      • This Saint Cloud is located in Skamania County and lies 1,487 miles [2,393.1 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Saint Cloud that is located in Ray County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Skamania County community of Saint Cloud.
    • West Virginia
      • Monongalia County
      • This Saint Cloud is located in Monongalia County and lies 725 miles [1,166.8 km]<1> to the east of the Saint Cloud that is located in Ray County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Monongalia County community of Saint Cloud.
    • Wisconsin
      • Fond du Lac County
      • This Saint Cloud is located in Fond du Lac County and lies 434 miles [698.5 km]<1> to the northeast of the Saint Cloud that is located in Ray County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fond du Lac County community of Saint Cloud.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Saint Cloud ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Chick ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Chick is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chick
  • Coopers
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Coopers is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coopers
  • Crystal Lakes
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Crystal Lakes is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crystal Lakes
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 352 people
  • Dockery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Dockery is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dockery
  • Elkhorn
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Elkhorn is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhorn
  • Floyd
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Floyd is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Floyd
  • Golf Hill
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Golf Hill is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Golf Hill
  • Henrietta
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Henrietta is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Henrietta
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 355 people
  • Homestead
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Homestead is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homestead
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 184 people
  • Napoleon
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Napoleon is located in Lafayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Napoleon
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 214 people
  • New Garden
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • New Garden is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Garden
  • Wood Heights
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Wood Heights is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wood Heights
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 700 people
  • Woods Heights
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Woods Heights is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woods Heights

How Far From Saint Cloud to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Saint Cloud to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Saint Cloud and extending to:

  • Richmond, which is the Seat of Ray County, lies just to the East Southeast.
  • Jefferson City, which is the State Capital of Missouri, lies 110 miles [177 km]<1> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could drive a straight line from Saint Cloud to Jefferson City, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take about two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 7 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 909 miles [1,462.9 km] to the east (E). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 36 days and walking would take 52 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,542 miles [10,528.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,286 miles [11,725.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,175 miles [8,328.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Saint Cloud) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Saint Cloud could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Saint Cloud to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Saint Cloud. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.2928, Longitude: -94.0183       In this case, the coordinates for Saint Cloud have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.659 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 315.826 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.347 degrees.